# Got a call from the CDC



## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

I am just curious if any of you guys have gotten a call from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) surveying about tobacco use. It was funny because I got one call the day before while I was at a family Brunch and said i didn't have time then the next day they called again. So my curiosity piqued so I figured i would answer the questions (I did not expect it to be about 25 minutes of questions) but after all was said and done the person taking the survey said good bye and hung up. Just thought it was odd.

was not sure if this was the right place to post so feel free to let me know if it is better suited somewhere else.


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## pdq_wizzard (Mar 15, 2014)

Maybe I just need more tinfoil, but I don't answer that kind of stuff. I just hang up on them. :behindsofa:


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)




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## Gheldan (Mar 22, 2014)

I never pick up numbers I don't know, if they leave me a message I'll call them back. But I can't say I've ever gotten a call from the CDC.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Gheldan said:


> I never pick up numbers I don't know, if they leave me a message I'll call them back. But I can't say I've ever gotten a call from the CDC.


I use my cell for work so I always have to answer it. but i was bored and figured why the hell not :dunno: . its not like I had anything better to do.


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## BlueDevil07 (Jun 20, 2013)

It's a trick. They're looking for zombie plague survivors. :biggrin:


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## Shemp75 (May 26, 2012)

lol, dude watch your credit the next few months.


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## Blue Raccoon (Mar 13, 2011)

I would be suspect of the CDC calling you for a survey then actually calling you back the next day. maybe your health or life insurance company fishing?


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Blue Raccoon said:


> I would be suspect of the CDC calling you for a survey then actually calling you back the next day. maybe your health or life insurance company fishing?


I wish I had life insurance... And my employer doesn't have nice enough insurance to worry about loosing it.


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## 455 Punch (Nov 24, 2013)

If the surveyor is being paid, ask if you're also going to be paid for the data that you transfer to them.


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## Blue Raccoon (Mar 13, 2011)

AuTechCoM said:


> I wish I had life insurance... And my employer doesn't have nice enough insurance to worry about loosing it.


trust me any insurance is better then no insurance.. can you say obamacare?


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## Cigar-Enthusiast (Feb 2, 2014)

It's probably a randomly done survey. Meant to be representative of the American population. I doubt someone else would have gotten a call on this forum.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Blue Raccoon said:


> trust me any insurance is better then no insurance.. can you say obamacare?


Lol I have to say our insurance is just barely better than obamacare and it will be a cold day in hell before I sign up for that bs


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## Blue Raccoon (Mar 13, 2011)

whatever..


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## LGHT (Oct 12, 2009)

Wow that's odd. Did you verify that they are actually the CDC and if so how? What type of questions did they ask? I don't mind participating in a survey, but I would never answer my phone and give anyone personal information about myself. If anything I would find "their" number online or a verified source and then try to back track to the person who called me. If can't they are probably not who they said they are.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

LGHT said:


> Wow that's odd. Did you verify that they are actually the CDC and if so how? What type of questions did they ask? I don't mind participating in a survey, but I would never answer my phone and give anyone personal information about myself. If anything I would find "their" number online or a verified source and then try to back track to the person who called me. If can't they are probably not who they said they are.


It was personal at all. the only question about me they asked was age, race, sexuality... not sure why my sexuality mattered. but it was all about tobacco use and what i think about tobacco and how i think tobacco affects health. i figure in California we need all the pro-tobacco people we can get before this state turns into a non-smoking state.


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## MDSPHOTO (Sep 10, 2013)

AuTechCoM said:


> I wish I had life insurance... And my employer doesn't have nice enough insurance to worry about loosing it.


I hate to be the grammar police because lord knows I ain't got no right, but this appears to be the most common error I see on Internet forums. Loose & Lose or Loosing and Losing, sorry but this is a pet peeve.

Lose vs Loose

A lot of people are mixing up lose and loose. In particular, a lot of people are writing loose when they really mean lose. Here are the definitions of the two words from my Penguin dictionary:

loose [lOOs] adj not fastened or pre-packed; not tied up or confined; able to move freely; not tight, not firmly fixed; not close-fitting; careless, inaccurate, vague; dissolute, immoral; not closely woven; flabby; (of bowels) inclined to diarrhoea; l. box stable or van in which an animal can move about; at a l. end uncertain what to do next; unoccupied ~ loose adv in a loose way; play fast and l. behave rashly or unscupulously ~ loose n release; on the l. free from restraint; on a spree; ~ loose v/t untie, undo; release from confinement or constraint, set free; detatch; fire (gun); shoot (arrow); (eccles) absolve.

lose (p/t and p/part lost) [lOOz] v/t and i no longer have; be deprived of by accident or misfortune; mislay, fail to find; fail to get or win; be too late for; be bereaved of; waste; be defeated or beaten; suffer loss, become worse off; fail to hear, see or understand; cause or allow to perish; (of clock or watch) go too slowly; (refl) miss the right path; become absorbed in; l. one's head become flustered, panic; l. one's temper grow angry; l. one's way fail to find the right path; l. out (US) be defeated after a struggle.

Examples:

This knot is too loose.
Please do not lose my book.
I had better not lose that file.
One way to remember the difference between the two words is to think that "lose has lost an 'o'".


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

MDSPHOTO said:


> I hate to be the grammar police because lord knows I ain't got no right, but this appears to be the most common error I see on Internet forums. Loose & Lose or Loosing and Losing, sorry but this is a pet peeve.
> 
> Lose vs Loose
> 
> ...


Lol at least I can use there, their, and they're correctly. But grammar and spelling are not my strong points. It drives my wife nuts and she is a grammar Nazi.


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

Really odd indeed. Do you remember the nature of the questions? Where they more directed to your specific situation or were they very broad in nature?

didn't see it was already asked.

The only reason I would think the CDC would conduct surveys regarding tobacco, is if there was some sort of disease that spreads through tobacco products. I hope this isn't going to be the way the FDA decides to push for further regulations on tobacco products! This is pissing me off, and I don't even know half the story.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Regiampiero said:


> Really odd indeed. Do you remember the nature of the questions? Where they more directed to your specific situation or were they very broad in nature?


It was very specific to my tobacco use what I have used how long... Then into how I felt tobacco affects health, then a little about how tobacco products are marketed. And it had a lot to do with e-cigs


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## SeanTheEvans (Dec 13, 2013)

It doesn't really matter what you say though, because data can always be manipulated to appear to represent something which it does not. That's how these things work. Just collect enough data/information and you can really come to just about "any" conclusion one wishes. Like how 9 out of 10 dentists recommend EVERY brand of toothpaste.... perhaps Dentists simply recommend that teeth should be brushed...

So whether or not your answers were to be pro-tobacco or not, they can and will be used to whatever ends the collecting agency has in mind. The questions are often purposefully written in certain ways specifically to gear answers towards an intended response, or ambiguity so that "data-shifting" can occur without technically "making something up", but still while offering very little meaningful support.

Research these days... a joke. Just look up articles about how grants are used for scientists to "discover" that mice like to eat both sugar and cocaine... who could have guessed? 
Meanwhile NASA loses funding


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## SOHResident (Mar 5, 2014)

I received a call from the CDC about 9 years ago and was giving an employee identification number by the person calling (my son was diagnosed with whooping cough). Not saying they would do the same for a survey but I also have never heard of the CDC doing surveys. Just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean they don't.....


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## Blue Raccoon (Mar 13, 2011)

when they said it was the CDC did they say it was the 'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'? could have been the center for dog crap..


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Blue Raccoon said:


> when they said it was the CDC did they say it was the 'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'? could have been the center for dog crap..


Yeah they said centers for disease control. I just abbreviated it for simplicity of typing on a mobile phone


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

SOHResident said:


> I received a call from the CDC about 9 years ago and was giving an employee identification number by the person calling (my son was diagnosed with whooping cough). Not saying they would do the same for a survey but I also have never heard of the CDC doing surveys. Just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean they don't.....


Yeah I thought about that so I looked it up and the CDC does do a lot of random phone call surveys


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## Pj201 (Apr 27, 2013)

SeanTheEvans said:


> It doesn't really matter what you say though, because data can always be manipulated to appear to represent something which it does not. That's how these things work. Just collect enough data/information and you can really come to just about "any" conclusion one wishes. Like how 9 out of 10 dentists recommend EVERY brand of toothpaste.... perhaps Dentists simply recommend that teeth should be brushed...
> 
> So whether or not your answers were to be pro-tobacco or not, they can and will be used to whatever ends the collecting agency has in mind. The questions are often purposefully written in certain ways specifically to gear answers towards an intended response, or ambiguity so that "data-shifting" can occur without technically "making something up", but still while offering very little meaningful support.
> 
> ...


 sad but true. Gotta hitch rides to space station from Putin.


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## Big Tex (Apr 18, 2011)

If you look at their website and search for tobacco surveys there is an article regarding how they are surveying people who use tobacco that have had multiple STD's. Something about how nicotine does not allow the STD's to proliferate in the body thus reducing the severity of most STD's in tobacco users.


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## gtechva (Mar 9, 2014)

I'm not into conspiracy theories, but in a world where you may have to pay more for insurance for using tobacco or being over your BMI...makes me leary.

P.S. I've paid for life insurance for years and haven't seen any benefit yet...I know it's for the wife's benefit...wonder if the in-laws know about it?


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

pdq_wizzard said:


> Maybe I just need more tinfoil, but I don't answer that kind of stuff. I just hang up on them. :behindsofa:





Gheldan said:


> I never pick up numbers I don't know, if they leave me a message I'll call them back. But I can't say I've ever gotten a call from the CDC.


THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## langos (Mar 1, 2011)

If it's not a fishing poser. common...

National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS) CDC - National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS) - Smoking & Tobacco Use

The National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS) was created to assess the prevalence of tobacco use, as well as the factors promoting and impeding tobacco use among adults. NATS also establishes a comprehensive framework for evaluating both the national and state-specific tobacco control programs.

NATS was designed as a stratified, national, landline, and cell phone survey of non-institutionalized adults aged 18 years and older residing in the 50 states or D.C. It was developed to yield data representative and comparable at both national and state levels. The sample design also aims to provide national estimates for subgroups defined by gender, age, and race/ethnicity.

NATS is the first adult tobacco survey designed within the framework provided by the Office of Smoking and Health's Key Outcome Indicators (KOI) report. The NATS questionnaire is built around KOI from each of the following four goal areas:

Preventing initiation of tobacco use among young people
Eliminating nonsmokers' exposure to secondhand smoke
Promoting quitting among adults and young people
Identifying and eliminating tobacco-related disparities
*
PRESS RELEASE: FINDINGS FROM CDC*


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